Traveling Cat

I recently made a short vacation to Mexico. :) It was my first trip out of the country in over a year (since biking across Vietnam!), and it was most needed and much too short. It was a good time though, and I’ll try to post some pics here.

WHERE: Merida and Tulum, the Yucatan, Mexico

WHEN: February 2010

WHY: I picked Mexico, and the Yucatan specifically, because I was going to do the trip with my boyfriend David. He’s been to three countries in Europe, but otherwise hasn’t traveled much, so I thought Mexico would be a good intro to Latin America and developing countries in general. (He said he’s a “level 3 traveler” and that I’m a “level 15 traveler,” and asked me to go easy on him). Silly boy… I’m just excited to go adventure… it doesn’t have to be something crazy. So Mexcico seemed good – a new language, new culture, less developed, but still easy to navigate, close to home/short flight, similar time zone, some familiar foods, etc. I think it was a lovely choice! I also opted to rent a car in the Tucatan because of its versatility…. if we were feeling lazy, we could just lay on a beautiful beach and drink margaritas. If we were feeling more adventurous, we could drive out to ruins and climb around, explore cenotes (underwater caves), and maybe hit towns that were decidedly more Mexican and less tourist. Also, escaping cold, rainy Seattle in February to a warm sunny place sounded delightful. And as an added bonus, I learned a little Spanish when I was 14 in high school, so it would help us get by when out of the touristy areas. :)

At Mayapan ruins near Merida

Kenya rounds up zebras for starving lions

Nairobi, Kenya (CNN) — Kenyan wildlife officials are ferrying thousands of zebras and wildebeest to a park in the country’s south to feed starving lions and hyenas, and prevent a conflict with humans.

The animals will be hauled from four locations to restock Amboseli National Park’s population, which lost 80 percent of its herbivores in a recent drought, said Kentice Tikolo, spokeswoman for the Kenya Wildlife Service.

“It was the worst drought in 26 years,” Tikolo said. “The Amboseli ecosystem was severely affected. … Lots of herbivores died, carnivores don’t have anything to feed on, and have been attacking neighboring livestock.”

The imbalance has sparked a row with villagers who lost animals in the drought and have threatened to kill lions and hyenas preying on remaining livestock.

Should the zebras be brought in to help the lions?

“There are only 2,000 lions left nationwide, and we are concerned because the numbers are dropping,” the spokeswoman said.

“Maasais are getting angry and threatening to spear them — the human versus wildlife conflict is getting out of hand — and our carnivores are already greatly endangered.”

About 4,000 zebras and 3,000 wildebeest will be transferred to Amboseli. The zebras will go first. The wildebeest will follow, after calving season, Tikolo said. Once at Amboseli, they’re expected to breed and sustain the lions over the long term.

Shipping the animals from Soysambu Conservancy in the Rift Valley and three other nearby locations will cost about $ 1.4 million, according to Tikolo.

The animals are herded into a funnel-shape enclosure using helicopters and loaded into trucks to Amboseli. From there, they are released into the wild, she said.

Tourism is the second-largest source of foreign exchange in the east African nation. About 20 percent of the income comes from tourism, with Amboseli as the second -highest earner, Tikolo said

Lions are among the big five — the list of top wildlife tourist attractions in the nation. Others are elephants, leopards, rhinos and buffalo.

I’ve spoken with a handful of people lately who are heading to South Africa who wanted travel advice… two different groups I met are going for World Cup games, and the adventuring Dougli are going to visit friends. These conversations inspired me to put some of my own trip notes into a more organized (and hopefully useful) format. I spent a week in Joburg in July 2006 and then returned to South Africa for almost a month in January-February 2007 to explore more of the country. Read on in this post for logistics info and sights visited. Remember that prices listed were from my time there in 2006/2007, and may have changed since then. For more stories of our personal adventures, use the South Africa tags or categories on the right column to find posts and pictures from our adventure. Enjoy! Love, Cat

I. Before you go
A. Recommended viewing:
“Tsotsi” won the 2005 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year

B. Recommended reading:

• Nelson Mandela’s “Long Walk to Freedom.”
• Disgrace, by JR Cotzee. Only read it if you’re ready for a “willfully painful” book. Working-out of personal and political shame and responsibility. Also concerned with his country’s history, brutalities, and betrayals. Also intent on what measure of soul and rights we allow animals.
• Barbara Trapido’s Frankie and Stankie, a girlish ‘memoir’ of apartheid South Africa. Not the most powerful book, but good intro to SA.

C. Transport Options

• Rental Cars – We used Budget Rent A Car. Driving from place to place gave us the flexibility to move when we want to which was an incredible gift. It also puts us closer to life on the road, which includes dodging all matter of obstacles on the road – cattle, goats, sheep, people, the occasional pig and even a monkey here and there. We came out mostly unscathed with the exception of one incident with kamikaze sheep. Note: if you hit anything, it’s the farmer/shepherd’s fault since they should pay better attention to the animals.
• Baz bus (tourist bus) – delivers to the major hostels in each spot along the coast between Joburg and Cape Town
• Local buses – small, cheap, crowded, used primarily by locals
• Tourist buses – super nice with hot cocoa service, sleeper seats, movies, etc. www.intercape.co.za
• Internal flights on airlines like Mango – www.flymango.com

D. Food
1. Biltong – beef jerky – the South African equivalent (but it’s WAY better)
2. Braii (BBQ)
3. Ostrich – As a former vegetarian, I had to re-learning everything about meat after avoiding it for 10-15 years. Ostrich meat is way leaner than beef and is way better for you. Happily, it actually tastes better than cow meat too. So if you haven’t tried an ostrich fillet lately, I highly recommend it.

E. Accommodation
Coast to Coast http://www.coastingafrica.com
There’s a free 300 page book called Coast to Coast that lists a full page on each (that is willing to pay) and it’s got more detail than Lonely Planet ever will. It’s also now online!

F. Developed
I’ll admit my ignorance and be honest with you: I wasn’t expecting to arrive from the village in Kenya and find Johannesburg quite so developed. Make no mistakes… South Africa is definitely a first world/developed country and Joburg is a world class city. In Joburg you can eat Thai, sushi, or Greek food all on one city block, and follow those with happy hours anywhere you like. There are coffee shops, pastry shops, dance clubs, hip bars, cute boutiques, art galleries, and street vendors selling crafts.

II. Johannesburg
We stayed with friends in a beautiful part of town called Melville.
A. City Living
I came to SA straight from the Kenyan village and all of the little “city living” things we took for granted in the US were pretty outstanding for me.
1. Book reading by a best selling South Africa author
2. Amazing jazz concert – Free concert series at University of Witwatersrand – Johannesburg campus
3. Art opening of a new photo exhibit at a downtown gallery in Standard Bank
4. Wandered a Sunday market near the local mall… so many homemade crafts and homemade clothes
5. Indie record stores like Canned Applause in Melville – For all your import and indie needs! We walked inside and I was absolutely stunned to see Shins t-shirts, Sub-pop posters, Postal Service CDs, ACL Fest DVDs, and more. Want to check out some South African indie bands? Try the Dirty Skirts or Eyes Wide Open.

B. Apartheid Museum
Can horrify you. Some of the photos, especially the ones by Peter Magubane, made me cry. The propaganda films pissed me off. And the whole of it made me ashamed to be white, even if I wasn’t in on the British or Dutch oppression of the black African people.
C. Hector Pieterson Museum and Memorial
Named for the 13 year old boy who was among the first killed by police in the 1976 student uprising in Soweto. The museum shares first hand accounts of brutality and uprising from students, parents, politicians, and journalists who were there. Incredibly moving personal stories, films, and photos of the revolution.
D. African Footprint
Musical in a fancy theatre that tells South Africa’s history through two hours of singing and dance, from native dance to 1950s jazz. Was fun, but could’ve skipped if we wanted to save money.
E. Constitution Hill
One of the closed down prisons where Nelson Mandela was kept as a political prisoner is now open as a museum where horror stories abound. The site also hosts the new building for South Africa’s highest court of law and has exhibits about Mandela. Free tours of both.
F. Maropeng – the Cradle of Humanity
Maropeng is outside Joburg by a few hours and very worth the car rental/drive. Perhaps the best/most progressive museum I’ve ever visited. Hidden behind a big hill is a new, gorgeous museum with the history of mankind, much of which is based off of fossilized apes and humans found in the area, pretty much the oldest in the world.

Museum had lots of great historical info, original fossils, and hands on displays for kids and adults both. Beyond the normal stuff, they went a step further to discuss sustainability, present socially relevant facts, and ask what we can do to preserve our world. Super progressive minded museum! One of the many scary facts I learned: 25% of the earth’s mammals are predicted to be extinct in 30 years! Another scary idea that I knew but really sinks in more here… we’re likely on our way to the sixth great extinction, and ours will be the first caused by us instead of being caused by nature (no more volcano problems, none of this ‘earth hit by asteroid wiping out the dinosaurs’ type of extinctions that have happened in the past).

G. Soweto – Africa’s largest black city, site of 1976 student protests that began the fall of apartheid, home to the only street in the world to have housed two Nobel Peace Prize winners, ex-president Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Soweto is South Africa’s largest black township with a population of about 3.5 million. (Ie. The British government kicked the Africans off their land and sent them to small, restricted bits of lands… just like the Americans did to the Native Indians who were the original inhabitants of North America). These black townships were low income housing at best, slums at worse. Moving people to Soweto didn’t silenced the black Africans. Soweto was home to many activists who helped bring an end to apartheid, is famous for the student uprisings in 1976, and one Soweto street holds claim to the title “only street in the world to have two Nobel Peace Prize winners, ex-president Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.”
Soweto today is home to 3 million people who speak 13 languages as well as s’camto, a street language. It houses Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, the largest hospital in the southern hemisphere with 6,000 beds and some of the most sophisticated medical facilities in the world. Opposite the hospital is Africa’s largest taxi rank from which 10,000 vehicles depart daily. Despite an unemployment rate estimated at 45% there are many informal businesses such as roadside garages, butcheries, exhaust repairs, barber shops, spaza shops (basic groceries), shebeens (unlicensed taverns), payphones and roadside kitchens, amongst others.
Soweto came to the world’s attention on June 16, 1976 with the Soweto Riots, when student protests erupted over the government’s policy to enforce education in Afrikaans rather than English. Police opened fire on 10,000 students in a peaceful march and among the first to die was 13 year old Hector Pieterson. 566 people died, and there are many chilling videos and photos documenting the struggle at the Hector Pieterson museum and the Apartheid Museum. The impact of the Soweto protests reverberated through the country and across the world. In their aftermath, economic and cultural sanctions were introduced from abroad. Political activists left the country to train for guerrilla resistance. Soweto and other townships became the stage for violent state repression. These events, spurred on in large part by the first student protests, helped bring the eventual end to apartheid in the 1990s.

III. Durban
Translux bus from Joburg to Durban – 100R ($15), left at 8:30am arrived at 4pm. We’ve moved around a bit while here to experience different parts of town… city centre, north beach, and south beach.
A. Banana Backpackers, city centre
Near wide selection of massage parlors and escort agencies. Not classy, but totally acceptable. 100R per person per night to share a double bed. Kitchen, TV, laundry, courtyard, 10 minute walk to the beach, free local calls
B. Umdholti Resort, in Umdholti, a beach town about 15km north of Durban
Cost for us: free (gift of a stranger!). Usually $100+.
Upscale resort town, mostly time shares and condos
Time share unit was on the beach, has private kitchen, bath, 4 beds, tv, seafront balcony, pool, bbq pits, etc. Wow! Is near Umhlanga (an upscale town with Thai food, sushi, Italian, etc) and Ballito.
C. Anstey’s Backpackers, 10 minutes south of Durban on the beach
Camping costs 40R per person. Surfboard rentals, pool, internet, TV, great balconies, book exchange, free coffee and tea, nicest kitchen I’ve seen in any hostel anywhere in the world. The staff were super cool, informative, opinionated, and full of personality. Only 30 meters/1 minute from the beach, cafes, pub, etc.

D. The Bat Centre – art galleries and free live music on Fridays and Sundays at
E. Free art museum
F. Free Natural Science Museum (nicer than Kenya’s and you save $10!)
G. relaxed at the pool
H. swam in the ocean,
I. cheap internet (6R per hour is way better than Melville’s 35R for 45 minutes).
J. Monkey memories
We stayed at a condo in Durban on the very first week of our South African adventure and there were “Beware of monkeys” signs posted about, with warnings to leave doors and windows closed when you were away. The monkeys weren’t opposed to getting in your room and stealing from you. We didn’t have any force their way into our room, but definitely had to guard our stuff down at the pool where the monkeys were running all over and grabbing drinks and snacks sitting next to sun bathers or under lawn chairs.

IV. The Wild Coast
South Africa has a lot of coastline, so each section gets its own name. We drove through the Hibiscus Coast, the South Coast, the Wild Coast, the Garden Route, etc. To say the scenery is stunning is a huge understatement – we have seen a huge range of landscape here – from dunes meeting rivers meeting the ocean, wide swaths of low bushes, old deciduous forests, to unbelievable rocky coastlines.
A. Hiking at the Oribi Gorge (10R).
We left the N2 Highway and had to head down dirt roads littered with lots of small huts, cows, sheep, goats, horses, and dogs roaming free. It felt like we were driving through Smurf villages. I was excited to get into the Xhosa land of mud huts with thatched roofs, but wasn’t expecting them to be painted such great blues, greens, and pinks. How delightful!

View from our tent at the Coffee Shack

B. Coffee Shack Backpackers (40R camp)
happening place! Waterfront lot, hammocks, board games, fire pits, gorgeous bathrooms, etc. The hostel seemed to be the main attraction.

Day hike through villages near Hole in the Wall

C. Hole In The Wall Backpackers (40R camp)
Connected to a hotel, so can accommodate any price range or privacy comfort levels.
Hiking – The hostel was lovely, but the main attraction was nature. We did lovely day hikes around the coast, swimming, saw a beautiful ‘hole in the wall’ rock formation. Great memories from those hikes.

V. The hamlet of Hogsback
We traveled inland to Hogsback, an area that claims to be an inspirational place where Tolkein got his ideas to write Lord of the Rings. The forests are lush and deep, full of butterflies, giant trees, waterfalls, and plenty of ornate spider webs.

A. Away With The Fairies Backpackers (45R camp)
Lovely, laid back space, nice communal dinners prepared for you. Hostel had lots of common rooms, a crazy pool, and even a giant tree you could climb to get to the very high up tree house! Recommended!
B. Hiking
The hostel has free maps for hiking… we did a 8 km hike through the mountains that supposedly inspired J.R.R. Tolkien to write Lord of the Rings. Great waterfalls, big trees, nice folks, and lots of local legends.
C. Visit The Edge
A nearby labyrinth overlooking the valley below. Free, beautiful, zen.

VI. The Sunshine Coast
A. Addo Elephant National Park (20R)
Cheapest, self guided safari you could imagine, and you get SUPER close to the animals. Honestly, we had elephants come within one foot of the car. Amazing!
The original Elephant section of the park was proclaimed in 1931, when only eleven elephants remained in the area – today this finely tuned ecosystem is sanctuary to over 450 elephants, Cape buffalo, black rhino, a variety of antelope species, as well as the unique flightless dung beetle, found almost exclusively in Addo. The Big 7 (Elephant, rhino, lion, buffalo, leopard, whales and great white sharks) in their natural habitat.

B. Stayed at Orange Elephant Backpackers (30R camp)
A rather odd backpackers with no common room, but the kitchen was well stocked and the bathrooms were nice. Oh, and instead of a pool, they had a trampoline. Restaurant/bar maybe functioned as common room – meals were fine and they had books/games. The hostel wasn’t anything to write home about, but the proximity to the park was perfect.

VII. The Garden Route/Plettenburg Bay
A. Monkeyland (90R student price)
“Monkeyland is the worlds first free roaming multi-specie primate sanctuary. Monkeyland has as one of its aims, to create awareness about the plight of primates and to show that with a greater understanding of our primate cousins, that we can all live in harmony.” So fun!

B. Albergo for Backpackers (50R camp)
Nice space. Has a pool table, free coffee and tea, tv and dvd, a bbq/braai pit, decent kitchen, clean bathrooms, internet, breakfast lounge, and outdoor tables. Not bad for $6, eh?
C. Tsitsikamma National Park
We took a gorgeous drive through/around Tsitsikamma National Park, but it was raining pretty hard so we didn’t do the hiking and adventuring we were hoping to do.
D. Monkey Memories
Monkey hijinks hit an all time high at MonkeyLand in Pletts. I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that a sanctuary for monkeys would hold lots of trouble makers. They had staff with water bottles to squirt the meddling monkeys and they carried big sticks (not to whack the monkeys, but to make scary noise). The monkeys weren’t deterred. They were stealing from the cafe (I thwarted the attempted of Tarzan by scaring him in the cafe), stealing from us at our picnic table (one monkey got Susie’s Sprite, but didn’t fare well attempting to use her straw), and we heard the fabulous tale of a monkey in the gift shop who showed up with a stick of his own to show the security folks he knew their game.

VIII. Oudtshoorn
The capital of ostrich breeding business since the 1800s – highly recommended!
A. “Backpackers Paradise”
My vote hands down for the best hostel in all of South Africa. Well appointed place with great open space, multiple well stocked kitchens, multiple TV rooms, multiple sitting rooms with couches and chairs, free coffee and tea, internet café, prepared meals, braai nightly (aka BBQ), swimming pool, bar and pool table, amazing staff, book exchange, and even visitors books for offering advice to other travelers. Amazing!
B. Ostriches!
I’d once read a passage in a book about “how to ride an ostrich” and decided seeing an ostrich farm would be one of the sillier “can’t miss” opportunities in life.
Take a tour of the Safari Ostrich Farm. We learned the history (still active since the 1800s!), saw the farm, got a 75% discount from our hostel (only 24R!), and even got to see jockeys doing ostrich racing! Not only that, but they let 3-4 lucky participants each tour get a FREE OSTRICH RIDE! I highly recommend $3.50 for an ostrich tour and free ride. Quite worth the trip!

C. Meerkat Magic!
I fell in love with meerkats after National Geographic published an amazing photo essay a few years back and have been a big fan ever since. As you know, meerkats are only found in one place in the world – sub Saharan Africa. And as I found out this week, there’s only one program in the world that lets you go out into their natural habitat with a conservation program – Meerkat Magic. It has to be a sunny day, and you have to put up with the somewhat crazy man who leads the tours, but I was more than happy to fork over hundreds of rand for the experience. I wanted to see them in person and wanted to learn more too. While Grant the guide was a bit of a crazy man, you’ve got to respect his ideals and the program he works with. They’re the only meerkat conservation program worldwide that leaves the meerkats in their natural habitat and doesn’t domesticate them by handling them or feeding them.
We got up and drove to the meeting place at 4:45am, made it out to the conservation site by 5:15am, and then hiked out to one of the 60+ boroughs by 5:45am. Then our lessons began. Did you know the meerkat is a tiny rodent, just larger than a rat, and their closest relative is the mongoose? Did you know they dig with sharp claws into the ground to hunt for insects?
Grant shares pictures. (Guests are forbidden from taking pictures as the organization needs the film revenue to help fund their conservation work and rely on BBC, National Geographic, etc.

IX. Route 62 through wine country
We decided to skip the rest of the garden route and stay in-land. It was totally the right decision for us. R62 is the “longest wine route in the world.” The drive was hot in January (37C is about 106F) but we slathered on more sunscreen and enjoyed the stunning mountain views.

A. Swartburg Pass
First stop on route 62 was the winding gravel road of Swartburg Pass – one of the “most spectacular passes in Africa” with views of the Matjies River valley. Scary and impressive.

B. Ladismith
From there we headed on back roads and more gravel to Ladismith. Not much there except a fabulous stop at a cheese and ice cream factory (yum!), but both of us were big Paul Simon fans and Ladysmith Black Mambazo fans, and that was enough to make excited about driving through the town of Ladysmith.

C. Warmwaterberg Spa
Hot springs between Barrydale and Ladismith at Warmwaterberg Spa. We went to a cool old resort called Warmwaterberg Spa (established in 1886 with three outdoor “Roman bathing pools” overlooking the gorgeous surrounding mountains and valleys. The 41C hot mineral water was fabulous, the setting amazing, and my head spinning. Germans apparently rate these among the top three hot springs in the world for their heat and mineral content… among other things they’ve got low levels of sulfur and high levels of lithium.

D. Robertson
Robertson – a small town in the Breede River Valley with wine, roses, and race horses. It’s nestled into the most gorgeous purple hills imaginable and has about 10% of SA’s vineyards, and amazing hiking opportunities.
1. Hiking
We spent a day at a local nature reserve and did a great, easy trail up to the edge of the mountains followed by an hour long rock scramble. Our goal was swimming in the many small rock pools and the bigger waterfall at the end. The water was quite chilly, the dip in the pools was refreshing and the views and rock formations were gorgeous. We heard about the hike courtesy of Robertson’s Backpackers.
2. Robertson’s Backpackers Hostel
Another in a line of very impressive hostels where we camped. Among its unique amenities included local wines, gorgeous bathrooms, eclectic original artwork around the house, and most interestingly a Moroccan lounge and hookah bar. We decided to peruse their video library and opted for a late night showing of the Breakfast Club on VHS.

E. Stellenbosch
Stellenbosch, the heart of South Africa’s wine country. Stellenbosch is actually SA’s second oldest city and vineyards were first planted there in the 1600s. With our luck we not only arrived on a Wednesday (the most happening day of the week). it was a college town with lots of bars (lower drinking age + 17,000 college students + wine country = party time in Stellenbosch).

1. Cellar tour at Die Bergkelder
Tunneled into the slopes of the Papegaaiberg mountain. We did all of the tour’s samplings there and both ended up tipsy before 11am. Some of the best wines I’ve ever had: Fleur de Cap.
2. Jordan Winery in Stellenbosch
Very laid back winery, much like you’d find in Washington’s wine country near Seattle or near Walla Walla (it’s sold in the States under the Jardin label).
3. Vrede en Lust Winery in Franschhoek
Vrede en Lust was the classiest winery I’ve ever seen, way fancier than Napa Valley. (They host weddings and cater to a rich foreign clientele). We picked Vrede en Lust because they also hosted a cheese and olive products shop onsite, as well as beautiful grounds and guest cottages. Little did we know the woman behind the counter would be so amazing… from advice on wines and local history to tattoo shops in Cape Town and gourmet dinner recommendations in nearby Paarl town.

4. Dinner at Noop
Most amazing dinner I’d had in recent years. Noop is a tiny artsy gourmet restaurant connected to a coffee shop and florist. The funky feel was very Seattle though the gourmet food quality was decidedly New York or Houston. Our bread, main meal, giant decadent dessert, coffee, and truffles only came to $11 each. Wow!
5. Stumble Inn Hostel
We stayed at the Stumble Inn, a packed, very popular hostel right in the middle of town. All of the beds and rooms were sold out, but we had Susie’s tent and they still had room for us. Young-ish crowd.

X. Cape Town

We returned our rental car in Cape Town to save money and went back to public transit (slow, but it got us door to door). We stayed with friends, but many folks we met recommended Long Street Backpackers. We spent a fair amount of time at the beach, shopping, and eating. My goal was to get there in time for the Cape Town Pride celebrations, a Pride parade, and a rocking Pride street party.

A. Robben Island
Tour of the prison island where Nelson Mandela and other freedom fighters were jailed. All tour groups led by former inmates. Powerful.
B. Long Street and Green Market Square – wander aimlessly
C. Hiked Table Mountain.
Even the “easiest” routes are supposed to be ‘difficult and hair raising’ and the guard at the bottom told us it can be full of bandits who jump out of the bushes and mug you at knife point (they apparently can’t use guns because guns cause rock slides). We had no muggings, no baboon attacks, not even sore muscles. The views were gorgeous and the other people hiking were super fun and social. We even had a new friend Andy join us for the hike, a 60+ year old Brit. The hike was a bit harder than he initially expected, but he did great and bought us drinks at the top to thank us for “taking care of him.”
D. We drove a loop around the Cape
Started in Big Bay, then into town through Table Mountain National Park, then out to a arts and craft market at Hout Bay, lunch on a farm (can’t remember where), back home for a late dinner. Sadly, we didn’t have time to go all the way south to Cape Point.

We were super sad to leave and miss the rest of South Africa, but wanted to get up to Namibia to check out the desert and sand dunes and continue the adventure!

I visited Kenya’s coast twice (for two trips to Mombasa and Lamu), and went out on dhows to do deep sea fishing. I remember catching red snapper, leather fish, and a handful of others by tying fishing line to 6-8 in chunks of wood. Seems the pirates are scaring away commercial fishing vessels and the amount of fish off the coast is now soaring. Guess we’d call that a silver lining… funny world we live in.

Kenya fishermen see upside to pirates: more fish
By JASON STRAZIUSO, AP Writer
Jan 11, 12:32 AM EST

MALINDI, Kenya (AP) — People here have one thing to thank Somali pirates for: Better fishing.

In past years, illegal commercial trawlers parked off Somalia’s coast and scooped up the ocean’s contents. Now, fishermen on the northern coast of neighboring Kenya say, the trawlers are not coming because of pirates.

“There is a lot of fish now, there is plenty of fish. There is more fish than people can actually use because the international fishermen have been scared away by the pirates,” said Athman Seif, the director of the Malindi Marine Association.

On one early morning, as the sun bathed their wooden dhow in a pale yellow, four fishermen jumped out of their rickety 15-foot boat, grabbed a hand-woven straw basket and waded ashore. The basket held the bounty: 175 pounds (80 kilograms) of sailfish, barracuda and red snapper, the haul from a 12-hour night on the ocean. Each fisherman stood to make $12, enough in this town to be considered a decent night’s work.

Fishermen and sportsmen say they’ve been catching more fish than ever. Howard Lawrence-Brown, who owns Kenya Deep Sea Fishing, said fishing stocks over the last year have been up “enormously – across all species.”

“We had the best marlin season ever last year,” said Lawrence-Brown, who owns Kenya Deep Sea Fishing. “The only explanation is that somebody is not targeting them somewhere. … There’s definitely no question about it, the lack of commercial fishing has made a difference.”

Fishermen in the region have seen their incomes and quality of life rise. New boats and better equipment can be seen on the water.

In Malindi, a second-tier tourist town whose tastiest seafood restaurant is called “The Old Man and the Sea,” after the Ernest Hemingway novel, the income of many families is determined by the number of fish caught during a half-day’s turn at sea.

On a recent weekday, fisherman Abdi Ali said he has more money of late to send his kids to high school, which costs money in Kenya. As Ali spoke, a man nearby held up a 2.5-foot (.75-meter), 9-pound (4-kilo) red snapper to motorists on Malindi’s main oceanfront drive in hopes of enticing a sale.

“This year the amount of fish we have caught has been very good. We get about 150 kilograms to 200 and even 300 kilograms, depending on how much we fish,” said Ali. Three hundred kilograms is about 660 pounds.

“There were fish that had disappeared and have come back like the barracuda, oranda, red snapper and other types,” he said. “We are very happy now that there are so many fish.”

Fishermen in Somalia, too, say they’ve seen increased catches. Traders at a Mogadishu fish market are happy because more fish means lower prices, which means more Somalis can afford to buy.

“I remember some days I used to go to the sea early to catch fish and would return with no fish, but nowadays there are plenty. You can catch it everywhere,” said fisherman Bakar Osman, 50. “I do not know the reason but I think the foreign fishing vessels, which used to loot our fish, were scared away by pirates.”

Somali pirates have increased attacks the last two years because of the millions of dollars in ransom they can earn. They currently hold close to a dozen vessels and more than 200 crew hostage. Fishermen here acknowledge the horror of the attacks – they occasionally are harassed by pirates themselves.

Before the pirates came out in big numbers, fishing longliners roamed the coasts, Lawrence Brown said, laying out miles (kilometers) of line.

“They kill everything from the bottom of the ocean to the boat. They run at 22 knots. They can lay their lines for 24 hours, pick them up and get out of there,” he said. “The damage on the sports fishing side is immeasurable.”

A report on pirates this year by the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore said the value of illegal catches from Somalia’s maritime jurisdiction is estimated at between $90 million and $300 million a year, and that foreign fishing vessels hail from all around the world.

The report’s author, Clive Schofield, a research fellow with the Australian Centre for Ocean Resources and Security at the University of Wollongong, called it ironic that nations contributing warships to anti-piracy efforts are in some cases directly linked to the foreign fishing vessels “stealing Somalia’s offshore resources.”

“This situation has led some pirates to justify their actions on basis of illegal foreign fishing activities – styling themselves ‘coastguards’ and characterizing ransom demands as ‘fines,’” the report said. “Without condoning acts of violence at sea, it is clear that the Somalis who hijack shipping off their coast are in fact not the only ‘pirates’ operating in these waters,” it said.

Piracy has not had a huge effect on Kenya’s overall fishing industry, which is not very well developed on the coast, according to the permanent secretary for Kenya’s Ministry of Fisheries Development, Micheni Japhet Ntiba. Kenya has brought in between 5,000 and 7,000 metric tons of fish off its Indian Ocean coast each of the last several years, he said, less than a tenth of Kenya’s yearly catch from Lake Victoria, on Kenya’s western edge.

Piracy “is a negative thing for Kenya fisherman. It’s a negative thing for the Kenyan economy. It’s a negative thing for the western Indian Ocean economy,” Ntiba said. “What I think is important for us is to invest in security so the government and the private sector can invest in the deep sea ocean resources.”

Still, Kenya’s sports fisherman say the pirates appear to have had a hugely positive effect on their industry. Angus Paul, whose family owns the Kingfisher sports fishing company, said that over the past season clients on his catch-and-release sports fishing outings averaged 12 or 13 sail fish a day. That compares with two or three in previous years.

Somali pirates, Paul said, are a group of terrorists, “but as long as they can keep the big commercial boats out, not fishing the waters, then it benefits a lot of other smaller people.”

—

On the Net:

Kingfisher sports fishing: http://www.kenyasportfishing.net

Kenya Deep Sea Fishing: http://www.kenyadeepseafishing.net

c 2010 The Associated Press

Polygamy – Kenyans Speak Out
Daniel Wesangula
9 January 2010

Nairobi — South African President Jacob Zuma, 68, recently attracted the ire of human rights activists and religious leaders with his decision to marry his fifth wife.

Mr Zuma’s critics see the president as promoting polygamy, a practice they consider abusive to women, unChristian and culturally outdated.

“His marriage to a woman he is reported to have already fathered three children with is a giant step back into the dark ages,” said the Reverend Theunis Botha, leader of South Africa’s Christian Democratic Party.

Mr Zuma’s one-line defence, couched in tradition, bears a striking resemblance to those of other polygamists.

In Kenya, where a proposed marriage law has recently ignited debate around polygamy, the South African president would find himself in good company among political leaders and other influential people in society.

The Draft Marriage Bill 2007 seeks to give couples the legal option of polygamy. It defines marriage as the voluntary union of a man or woman intended to last for their lifetime and states that the marriage could be monogamous or polygamous provided the two parties are in agreement.

Lugari MP Cyrus Jirongo, who has three wives, says there is nothing wrong with the practice so long as the man “can comfortably provide for each one of them (the wives)”.

“They are what define us as a nation and as a civilisation. I grew up in a society in which polygamy was the only way to go,” said Mr Jirongo, adding that polygamy has made him a better man, a better husband and a better father.

“In short, it has made me a complete family man. And I am proud of it because all my wives understand me and understand each other. I’d prefer men to be more honest in their dealings with the opposite sex. I better have three women at home instead of running around with other people’s wives every evening. Look what happened to Bill Clinton and Tiger Woods.”

The former US president was embroiled in a scandal during his years in office over an affair with a White House intern named Monica Lewinsky.

Lately, golfing legend Tiger Woods, who had a squeaky clean image, took a huge beating from a revelations by a string of women claiming he had slept with them. The sex scandal has badly affected Woods’ public image and sporting career.

Former Butere MP Martin Shikuku, 77, said many people opposed to polygamy were simply aping alien cultures.

“Those who say it is bad should look within themselves and decide which Western cultures to follow. Some of them like monogamy are a sham, and we should be brave enough to reject them,” said Mr Shikuku, who declares himself a proud and unapologetic polygamist.

“There are millions of people around the world married to one spouse but still feel hollow inside. I have no regrets, I’m a polygamist and a very happy one.”

Three of Mr Shikuku’s four wives have died.

Ironically, the former MP has himself come off as a cultural maverick in the past for showing his preferred burial site and even preparing a coffin.

Some villagers in his rural Bungoma home have accused him of breaching tradition.

Mr Shikuku’s and Mr Jirongo’s support for polygamy is significant given that although many influential Kenyan men are known to marry more than one wife and maintain several mistresses, they rarely talk about it in public.

The existence or allegations of such relationships tend to come to the surface when a man dies with various women engaging in legal battles for control or a share of his property.

One of the ongoing tussles in court is over the property of former intelligence chief James Kanyotu who died in 2008. A woman who said she was Kanyotu’s second wife went to court to claim a piece of his estate.

The death of former Embakasi MP Melitus Mugabe in 2008 resulted in a battle for his property as well. Three women, all claiming to be his widows, went to court to lay claim to his property.

The first suit was filed jointly by two of the said widows, Maria Palma and Agnes Wairimu, while the second was filed by Diphrose Matengo and Mr Were’s siblings.

Property battles

The two widows of former Moyale MP Guracha Galgalo, who died in the 2006 Marsabit plane crash, also fought it out over their husband’s property before agreeing to an out-of-court settlement two years later.

However, polygamy has yet to find acceptance among religious leaders and advocacy groups who associate it with human rights abuses.

“If a man has equal access to five sexual partners, and a woman is only entitled to one, where is the equality in that?” asks the Rev Timothy Njoya.

“Sex is a right that should be given in equal proportions to the couple.”

The retired Presbyterian cleric says accepting polygamy as a way of life would reverse the gains made in human rights because women in such a relationship will not have the same privileges as the man.

“Show me any man who would be comfortable getting married to a woman with several other husbands. If we were to condone polygamy, we should also put up a fight to allow polyandry in our society,” he said.

The subject of wives and mistresses among prominent Kenyans has always been a thorny issue. President Kibaki had to call an afternoon press conference last year to clarify his marital status.

Despite the fact that he evolved into the prototype of an African Big Man exercising absolute power over the country, former president Daniel Moi was never seen in public with the mother of his children.

But first president Jomo Kenyatta seemed at peace with his three known wives. Mr Kenyatta’s youngest wife, Mama Ngina, took up the duties of First Lady.

Experts argue that polygamy is not only about having many wives who pamper their man. It speaks of a deeper social issue.

“It is a commentary on the mentality, aspirations and personality of a nation,” said , Father Dominic Wamugunda, a ERoman Catholic priest.

He says he is surprised that in the 21st century where the world’s traditions seem to have evolved to fit into accepted global norms, some societies still condone polygamy; a fact traditionalists oppose.

Patricia Nyaundi, the executive director of FIDA-Kenya, says polygamy is not only outdated, but it has also lost its original meaning.

“What men are attempting to pass off as polygamy is just multiple marriages. The importance their forefathers had for polygamy has disappeared and what remains is men collecting women for their own selfish reasons,” she said.

Decades ago, Mrs Nyaundi said, polygamy was an accepted social practice in which the man respected himself and all of his wives and understood each one’s role in the larger family.

“What reasons would one have to be a polygamist in the modern day where even self respect among some men is hard to come by? Plus it would take a lot of hard work from the man and his wives to make such a relationship work in this day and age,” says Mrs Nyaundi.

But the former Butere MP is of another view: “I run my marriage like a government. Women see things differently so, within my government, I have opposition too but, at the end of the day, we all get along.”

Pamela Masakhwi, a psychiatrist, says clamour for attention among women in a polygamous marriage may cause the women to lose self-esteem.

“Every woman wants to feel secure and demands her share of attention. If the man’s energies are divided amongst the other women, one is bound to feel short-changed as life will become a contest among the wives,” Ms Masakhwi said.

“In these times of inflation and HIV/Aids, a monogamous union makes more sense.”

Outspoken activist Orie Rogo-Manduli sees nothing wrong with polygamy. “In fact, it is more natural for men to be polygamous than to be monogamous,” says Ms Rogo-Manduli.

“I know a lot of single women who knowingly date married men and, if they were to be given the choice of being the man’s second wife, they would gladly agree.”

She says the only women who are opposed to polygamy are the hugely successful ones who might feel getting into such a union would mean that they share their hard-earned respect and income with their co-wives.

“Life gets messy when people deny it. There would be less quarrels, less family feuds and life would sail along smoothly if we accepted polygamy as part of us,” she says.

Mr Jirongo says polygamy might solve some of the common social problems faced by society.

“If you want another woman in your life, make it official. You’d be surprised at how accommodating women are. Issues such as illegitimate children and family wrangles after the man dies will be a thing of the past since all the wives know each other and what assets the man had,” says the Lugari MP.

His advice for those with only one wife but are secretly thinking of getting another one?

“You first have to consult with the oldest among them and make your intentions clear and talk about the position she will occupy in the new family. This shows you respect her,” he said.

The Bible

Mr Shikuku describes people who say polygamy is unChristian and churches that preach against multiple marriages as dishonest, citing the several polygamists mentioned in the Bible.

“No one other than God should pass judgement on another. He alone should decide what a sin consists of. I am a Christian and a polygamist too,” says Mr Shikuku.

Ms Manduli says it’s better to be polygamous, legally, than to be promiscuous, an argument that doesn’t sit well with some.

“If we base your actions on the wrongs of the minority, what example are we setting for the generations to come?” asked Fr Wamugunda.

Copyright 2010 The Nation.

Kenya: Study Shows Young Women Would Rather Get Aids Than Fall Pregnant

Caroline Njung’e21 December 2009
Nairobi — When it comes to choosing emergency contraception, young Kenyan women trust their schoolmates. They also trust the chemist, the Internet and their boyfriends.

The only people they don’t trust are their parents.

One word explains why a 25-year-old woman we’ll call Jane lowers her face in shame when explaining why she had unprotected sex with a man she had known for only a month.

Trusted him

“I trusted him,” Jane says, averting her eyes and squirming uncomfortably in her seat. The next morning, the enormity of her decision sank in — what if she got pregnant? She was still in college and definitely not equipped to raise a child.

Her new boyfriend came up with the solution — “Just swallow the ‘morning-after pill’ and you will have nothing to worry about,” he advised, even offering to dash to the chemist for her.

For Jane, the suggestion to use emergency contraception proved a “magic bullet” of sorts.

“Since I did not get pregnant that first time, I continued using the E-pill each time I had unprotected sex, which was at least once a week, convinced that I could not get pregnant,” she recalls.

A month later, however, that “magic bullet” took a wrong turn. Jane’s worst fear came to pass — she was pregnant and devastated.

“I just wasn’t ready to handle a pregnancy or worse, become someone’s mother. There was still so much that I wanted to do, so much that I wanted to accomplish…” Jane says, her voice trailing off.

Jane could easily speak for thousands of young women throughout Kenya.

Pick any 10 in the streets of Nairobi, and at least half admit to having unprotected sex — regularly. They will also tell you they don’t ask their partners about their sexual history, and that they use the E-pill far more often than is recommended.

That’s what the Nation found during an interview for this feature with 10 women between the ages of 19 and 27 years. Far from embodying the non-religious, immoral stereotype, these women were either in college or university, or employed in white-collar jobs.

Overwhelmingly, this group is likely to attribute their risky sexual behaviour to trust — the trust they place on boyfriends to shun sexual partners outside their relationship.

In the same breath, they claim strong awareness of the deadly risk posed by sexually transmitted diseases. These women say they’ve investigated various options for preventing pregnancy, yet place absolute trust in the relatively new E-pill as their contraceptive of choice.

In short, it would seem, these women at the peak of their reproductive years would rather face death, or long term complications of E-pill usage, than the condemnation or rejection from family, church leaders, or community resulting from pregnancy.

“My parents would probably kick me out should they find out that I’m sexually active, so I don’t even want to imagine their reaction should I get pregnant today,” says Sheila, a 22-year-old who is about to graduate from college.

This response confirms past Population Council research findings which indicate that fear of pregnancy outweighs fear of contracting the HIV virus among E-pill users — 79 per cent cited pregnancy as their biggest fear, while only 45 per cent thought they were at risk of contracting HIV through unprotected sex.

Contraception users

A 2007 research by Population Services International (PSI) indicates 69 per cent of E-pill users had either college or university-level education, while 59 per cent were employed.

Overall, 64 per cent of users were married, cohabiting or single but in a steady relationship. These findings dispel the notion that adolescents or the promiscuous are the majority of emergency contraception users.

But is death a less tangible concept for these educated, employed young women than pregnancy? The answer, one expert says, may just shock the people most responsible for moulding a young woman’s sense of self.

According to Wanjiku Gikang’a, a family therapist and university lecturer, parents are largely to blame for the shockingly casual approach young women adopt towards unprotected sex.

“Today’s parents think that their duty is done once they provide material support for their children — but they end up neglecting an even more important area — the emotional well-being of their children.”

“Young unmarried women would rather seek an abortion than let their parents know that they’re pregnant,” says Gikang’a.

She cites a case she is privy to, that of a young woman who took the more drastic step of procuring an abortion than confide in her parents that she was pregnant.

“She was suicidal by the time she sought help since the mental torture she experienced after the abortion was just too much to handle.”

Gikang’a says most parents expect, even demand, that young women make wise sexual choices, with little or no guidance.

The result, she explains, is a generation that grows up devoid of self-esteem, even though highly-educated and self-sufficient. It seems logical that they could be persuaded to have unprotected sex with someone whose sexual history is unknown to them. Parents don’t realise that true self-esteem is fuelled by information.

“A young woman who has been raised with self-esteem would think twice before doing anything that will jeopardise her health; she would be empowered to look beyond just getting pregnant,” Gikang’a says.

Dr. Marsden Solomon, the Reproductive Health Regional Medical Advisor for Family Health International, says that for the sexually uninformed young woman, the social, economic, the psychological and moral repercussions of pregnancy seem easier to dodge.

“Unlike a sexually transmitted disease, pregnancy cannot be hidden; it is a visible consequence and demonstration of a sexual act and for the unmarried girl in our society, the shame that accompanies it is heavy,” says Dr Solomon.

But young woman might be more willing to gamble on hiding symptoms of HIV or STD’s for years. After all, even people who contract HIV can live for decades with ARV’s, proper nutrition and counselling.

Besides trust, the young women interviewed for this feature also cited pressure from their boyfriends to engage in unprotected sex.

“Most men question your faithfulness and love for them if you insist on using a condom, so we end up giving in to unprotected sex to prove that we’re not seeing anyone else,” said Mary, a 21-year-old student at a city college. She has been using the E-pill to prevent pregnancy at least twice a month for the past one year.

“Men also argue that the relationship isn’t close enough when we insist on using protection,” said Christine, a 25-year-old accountant who started having unprotected sex with her current boyfriend three months after they started dating. They have been together for six months but are yet to visit a VCT centre to have their status checked. She, too regularly pops the E-pill to prevent pregnancy.

Only two of the women assembled by the Nation had done more than cursory Internet research into the emergency contraception pill. What’s most startling is that those who haven’t had a “failure” — a pregnancy — don’t believe they are abusing the E-pill. They think it is easier to use and safer than other methods of birth control.

But the Ministry of Health’s Family Planning Guidelines for Service Providers, as well as the World Health Organisation, emphasise that emergency contraception should only be used as a backup method in emergencies and not as a regular method of family planning because it is not as reliable. In fact, using the E-pill on a monthly basis points to misuse and heightens the risk of pregnancy.

The E-pill has a pregnancy prevention rate of 88 per cent when taken within 120 hours after unprotected sex, compared to the 99.78 per cent protection that other hormonal methods offer. What’s more, the E-pill’s ability to prevent pregnancy diminishes with regular use because it contains a much higher dose of hormones than regular contraceptive methods.

So far, there are no documented health risks from frequent E-pill usage. But the ripple effects are far-reaching. As Dr. Solomon points out, you might succeed in preventing an unwanted pregnancy for a while, but might repeatedly expose yourself to the HIV virus and STD’s such as gonorrhoea and Chlamydia, which have a devastating effect on a woman’s reproductive organs.

“These two STD’s damage the fallopian tubes where conception takes place, leading to infertility,” Dr. Solomon explains.

In a conservative society like Kenya’s, childlessness attracts harsh social and cultural judgment. Young women should also consider the increased possibility of seeking an unsafe abortion, which could result in long-term complications or death.

Despite these sobering facts, many young women still don’t embrace common family planning contraception methods, due to myriad myths and misinformation.

For instance, a 2008 study by Population Council found that 57 per cent of the women who used the E-pill believed that it was not possible to become pregnant after using the emergency contraceptive.

This group also believes that regular family planning methods, such as the combined oral contraceptive pill, injectables and implants, are for married people who do not want any more children.

“A friend told me that they (implants and injectables) cause infertility and permanent varicose veins when used over a long period,” said 23-year-old Faith, an actress with a local theatre group.

For most of the youngest E-pill users, informal networks (friends and relatives) appear to be the main source of information on emergency contraception. But it’s almost guaranteed that no one in that network is a responsible, informed adult. Ironically, young people themselves are clamouring for change in that regard.

A recent study by the Centre for the Study of Adolescence revealed that, nearly 65 per cent want to receive sex education in school. They also want their parents involved in forums where sexual heath is discussed.

“Our parents know that we’re having sex, but they don’t talk to us about it. Yet when we get pregnant or when a friend does, they are embarrassed and angry and blame us for not-knowing better,” says Beatrice, a 22-year-old who was 16 when she first heard about the E-pill.

And 26-year-old Angela, who became pregnant in her second year in college, wished that parents could open up and talk to them about sex candidly, instead of cautioning them about “playing with boys” or flatly condemning sex.

Taboo subject

“Right from our homes, to learning institutions as well as the church, sex is a taboo subject, and when young people talk about it, they’re branded immoral,” echoes 21-year-old Sylvia.

In short, the women who spoke to the Nation painted a clear picture of why it’s frighteningly easy to trust a man you met a month ago, who advises you to take a pill you really don’t know much about, to prevent a situation that will force a painful conversation with the very people who should have your best interest at heart.

And there is only one remedy, family therapist Gikang’a says. Accurate, thorough information — from the very first people we trust in life.

“Sex is still taboo in our society, yet the irony is that we cannot divorce it from our daily lives — the fact is that our children are having it. Let’s empower them to make the right choices by talking to them about it and let’s let them know that they can confide in us about anything because we’ll support them — this is what unconditional love is all about.”

Tourists return to Zimbabwe as economy recovers
By CELEAN JACOBSON, Associated Press Writer
Monday, November 16, 2009

The number of tourists visiting Zimbabwe this year has more than tripled, a trade official said Monday as entrepreneurs tried to lure investors to the troubled southern African country.

Emmanuel Fundira, president of the Zimbabwe Council of Tourism, said at an investment conference in neighboring South Africa that a unity government formed in February has brought political and economic stability. But full recovery is very much linked to the success of the new government, which many fear is on the brink of collapse.

Zimbabwe has a wealth of minerals and natural attractions and was once the region’s breadbasket. Many blame its economic meltdown on President Robert Mugabe’s land policy under which thousands of white-owned commercial farms were seized in 2000. Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, also is accused of undermining democracy.

Mugabe was forced into the coalition with longtime opposition leader Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai after elections last year that were inconclusive and marred by violence blamed on Mugabe’s supporters.

Tourism received a boost when a number of Western countries lifted warnings against traveling to Zimbabwe after the unity government was formed. Zimbabwe is also hoping to benefit from the football World Cup to be held next year in neighboring South Africa.

Fundira said 362,000 people had visited the country by August compared to 100,000 visitors the year before.

A decade ago, Zimbabwe earned $250 million in revenue from tourism, Fundira said. This dropped to $40 million in 2005 but has risen to $100 million since the unity government was formed.

“The economy has got so much potential but political stability is extremely key,” Fundira said.

With Tsvangirai’s party in charge of the treasury, the new government moved quickly to scrap the local currency in favor of the U.S. dollar. It also removed price controls, which had left supermarket shelves bare and fuel scarce.

Zimbabwe is rich in gold, platinum and diamonds. It has a relatively sound road and power network but infrastructure is in need of upgrading and maintenance.

“The opportunities for business in Zimbabwe are immense,” said hotelier Shingi Munyeza. “The question is: Do you get in now or later? Later is very costly. Early is very risky.”

Munyeza is group chief executive of African Sun, a Zimbabwean company that has expanded into west and southern Africa.

Munyeza acknowledges it’s not easy operating in a country where hyperinflation – now under control after the government abandoned the local currency – made it almost impossible to keep accurate financial records.

But in the last three months their hotels in the capital Harare have been 70 percent full, more than double last year’s occupancy rates.

“This time last year we were always planing for the next day to be worse than the day before,” he said. “Now this month has been better than last month.”

However, many investors fear Zimbabwe’s newfound stability is threatened.

Tsvangirai withdrew for a short period from the unity government last month, citing a surge in political violence and accusing Mugabe of undermining the coalition.

Foreign countries have said they will only lend money to Zimbabwe when there are more economic reforms and they can be sure funds will not be misused.

One entrepreneur who knows only too well the effects politics can have on business is South African Steve Tetluk. Seeing a gap in the information and technology field, Tetluk bought the rights to become Panasonic’s official representative in February.

Since then he has seen his Zimbabwe sales increase by 20 percent while a recession in South Africa saw sales there drop 34 percent. In addition, his costs are substantially lower and profits three times higher than in his South African operation.

But when Tsvangirai withdrew, the deals dried up and they have only begun firming up again since the leader returned to the unity government.

“The politics and posturing are costing the country a huge amount in terms of investment,” he said.

In Fight Against AIDS, Kenya Confronts Gay Taboo
By Nick Wadhams / Nairobi Saturday, Nov. 07, 2009

Confronted by growing evidence that sex between men is a significant driver of new HIV infections, the Kenyan government has shed a long-time refusal to acknowledge the existence of homosexuality and will launch a survey of gay attitudes and behaviors in its three biggest cities next year.

The project is considered a landmark because the government and the vast majority of Kenyan people have long refused to address homosexuality in the fight against AIDS. Sex between men is illegal in Kenya — punishable by up to 14 years in prison — and is seen by many as a Western-imported, morally wrong behavior that is limited to areas visited by tourists. (See TIME’s photos of Africa’s AIDS crisis)

But officials say the country is in the middle of a full-blown HIV/AIDS epidemic, with about 7 percent of the population now infected and only 15 percent of those people even aware that they are HIV positive. While the vast majority of HIV transmissions are through heterosexual sex or intravenous drug use, research conducted in 2007 suggests that the spread of the disease through gay sex is far more common than skeptics believe. Fifteen percent of all new HIV infections each year are thought to be among men who have sex with men. And because some men who engage in gay sex are married and do not identify themselves as gay, it is seen as one way in which the virus crosses from “at-risk” categories to the general population.

“It will be a tricky issue that is likely to polarize everybody,” Dr. Nicholas Muraguri, director of the National AIDS/STI Control Program, tells TIME. “But what we are saying is that we cannot as a country socially exclude these groups and hope that we will win the war against HIV at the same time.” (See TIME’s photos of the crisis in Kenya)

Initial media reports said the project, which was announced last week, would be a gay census — raising fears that gays could be exposed against their will and questions about whether such a count could possibly be accurate. But Muraguri says all information collected by the government will be kept confidential and officials will not seek to contact all men who have sex with men in Kenya. The government will also seek to interview both male and female sex workers and intravenous-drug users.

While Kenyan attitudes toward homosexuality are considered more liberal than the rest of sub-Saharan Africa outside South Africa, gays say they still face overwhelming hostility in the country. The law banning sex between men is a holdover from colonial times but won’t be repealed soon; one member of parliament, asked if a draft constitution in the works would enshrine gay rights, said recently that doing so would destroy the document’s chances of passing.

Anti-gay attitudes have been on full display in recent weeks as the Kenyan media have breathlessly reported on the civil ceremony of two Kenyan men in Britain. They were dubbed a shame to Kenya, their parents were harassed and The Nation newspaper’s website has been inundated with comments, most of them condemnatory.

Because of the stigma they face, gays rarely seek information about the dangers of having unprotected sex. One commonly held myth in Kenya is that HIV cannot be contracted via anal sex, when in fact that is one of the easiest ways to get it. Gays have trouble receiving treatment at hospitals, particularly if they show symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases that might lead doctors to suspect they had engaged in sex with other men.

“Some of us have gone to a public health facility and if the doctor realizes we are gay, they will draw attention to us, even from the reception, calling people, ‘Come and see a gay person, come and see a gay person,’” says Peter Njane, director of the Ishtar MSM gay health rights group in Nairobi. Muraguri’s NASCOP group, which will lead the survey with funding from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, says those beliefs must not be allowed to impede the country’s efforts to fight HIV.

The researchers will ask a series of behavioral questions to men who have sex with men starting next year in Nairobi, the western city of Kisumu and the coastal city of Mombasa. They will also try to estimate the number of men who are HIV-positive or have sexually transmitted diseases. Such a widespread survey has never been attempted in Kenya before. In a 2004 study in Nairobi, 500 men who have sex with other men were interviewed about their health practices, and in Mombasa in 2006 and 2008, 400 male prostitutes were questioned as part of two different sex surveys.

“What we’ve primarily been slowed by is just not having the clear sense of where those populations are centered in the country and where socially and otherwise we can most effectively reach them,” Warren Buckingham, Kenya coordinator for the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, tells TIME.

Much of the gay community has largely decided to abandon the fight for gay rights for now because the hostility they face is too intense. But they hope that initiatives such as the NASCOP research will help reshape Kenyan opinions about AIDS. “As a country and as an African culture, we live in full denial of the existence of homosexuality,” says James Kamau, national coordinator of the Kenya Treatment Access Movement, which aims to increase the availability of all essential medicines to Kenyans. “Because of the cultural background, we shut our eyes, our minds and everything, yet it is happening every single day.”

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1936514,00.html#ixzz0WIGgll91

2 killed, 15 wounded in ethnic, religious violence in Kenyan slum
By Tom Odula (CP)

NAIROBI, Kenya — Two people died and 15 others were seriously wounded after machete-wielding rioters broke into violence Saturday over ethnic tensions in Nairobi’s largest slum, officials said.

The violence began after a dozen youths from the Nubian ethnic group were hired to demolish trading stalls in the Kibera slum on behalf of a church that believed the stalls were blocking its path, said Mohammad Gore, a member of a local council.

Later, Luhya tribesmen and traders retaliated by hacking to death a Nubian man in his mid-20s, Gore said.

Nubian youths then attacked people indiscriminately despite pleas from religious leaders for calm. A second person was killed, said Evans Ogwankwa, a local commissioner.

“These (the Nubian youths) are criminals and they should dealt with as such,” said Gore, who is also Nubian.

Andrew Otieno, a doctor at the Makina Clinic in Kibera, said four victims of machete violence had been brought to his clinic, he said. Several shacks were set on fire.

Nubians and Luhya have clashed before. Paramilitary police were patrolling the slum, Gore said, but officials feared Saturday’s violence could flare into a larger conflict.

Copyright © 2009 The Canadian Press.

Kenya: Experts Unveil New Malaria Testing Kits
by Gatonye Gathura and Isaiah Esipisu
2 November 2009

Nairobi — Newly developed malaria testing technologies could help shift diagnoses from the current hit or miss management to treating only the confirmed cases.

The Rapid Testing Kits, of which several brands are on display at the ongoing international malaria conference in Nairobi, take less than five minutes to diagnose a case.

The kits which are already being tested by the World Health Organisation in five countries can be widely used at community level, requiring little skills and no expensive storage systems.

Endemic areas

Current diagnoses for malaria include a microscope test, equipment that are not available in most government hospitals. Consequently any case of fever in endemic areas is managed as malaria in what is called presumptive treatment.

“This is very wasteful considering the drugs in use are very expensive. We could save enormous amounts of money if we only treated confirmed cases,” says Dr Joe Lines of WHO at a press briefing on Monday.

In a study to be presented later in the week, public health facilities across the country lack trained personnel and equipment to implement laboratory-based malaria diagnostic treatment.

When the study team from the health ministries sampled 56 facilities across the country, more than half of laboratory staff was found not to have been trained in diagnosing malaria while 77 per cent of laboratories experienced chronic stock-outs of essential diagnostic supplies.

Subsidised drugs

The use of the new and highly effective drugs has not been taken up sufficiently because of the high cost in the private sector, according to a study presented by Population Services International.

While deliberations continue on how to make the new drugs more accessible, Kenya has its fingers crossed as global financiers decide in two weeks on which country will receive highly subsidised malaria drugs.

Speaking at the ongoing international conference on Monday, the director of Malaria Control Team at the Clinton Foundation, Dr Oliver Sabot, said the Board of Directors of Global Fund would be meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in about two weeks to decide which countries will benefit from cheaper malaria drugs.

If Kenya becomes eligible for this programme, then it means that the artemesinine combination drugs like Coartem, which costs Sh500 for a dose of an adult person on the retail market could now cost as little as Sh25.

However, the experts were not sure whether Kenya’s bad record on accountability of Global Fund money would affect the country’s eligibility.

So far, only 11 countries have been invited to take part in the experimental programme, Kenya included. The other nine are from Africa, and the other one is Cambodia. They include Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Madagascar, Benin, Niger, Senegal, Nigeria and Ghana. Yet not all of them will be eligible for the programme.

Following a survey by the ACT Watch, it was discovered that only three children out of a 100 suffering from malaria access the Artemesinin Combined Therapy, which is so far the most effective treatment for malaria.

“It is a sad reality to learn that up to 97 per cent of children below the age of five suffering from malaria do not access the effective drugs for the disease treatment within 24 hours presentation of malaria symptoms,” said the expert.

The survey further found out that in most cases, people in the most affected countries sought to buy anti-malarial drugs from private clinics where the drugs were either missing or they were too expensive. In the meantime, only 40 per cent of mothers sought help from the public sector.

Effective treatment

Initially, the Global Fund has been pumping money into the public sector alone to buy drugs for managing malaria.

So far, all the government hospitals and health centres in Kenya provide anti-malarial drugs free of charge to everybody.

However, the ACT Watch says that provision of the drugs to the public sector alone has promoted either the use of artemesinin mono-therapy, or use of obsolete drugs that are no longer effective for malaria treatment.

Rolling off of a programme to provide highly subsidised anti-malarial drugs comes after a recent study in Uganda and Tanzania indicated that subsidised drugs improved uptake of the drugs in good time by more than 50 per cent.

Copyright 2009 The Nation.

Study: Man-eating lions consumed 35 people in 1898
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID (AP)

WASHINGTON — The nightly attacks by two man-eating lions terrified railway workers and brought construction to a halt in one of east Africa’s most notorious onslaughts more than a hundred years ago. But the death toll, scientists now say, wasn’t as high as previously thought.

Over nine months the two voracious hunters claimed 35 lives — no small figure, but much less than some accounts of as many as 135 victims.

It was 1898, when laborers from India and local natives building the Uganda Railroad across Kenya became the prey for the pair, a case that has been the subject of numerous accounts and at least three movies.

The death toll had been estimated at 28 railway workers and “scores of unfortunate African natives,” with the total ranging as high as 135. Delay of the railroad was even subject to debate in Britain’s House of Commons.

Scientists hoping to figure out the actual number of people eaten decided to study the remains of the two male lions, now on display at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, testing the types of carbon and nitrogen in their teeth and hair.

Those chemical ratios were compared with the carbon and nitrogen found in modern lions in the region, in lions’ normal prey animals and in humans.

Bones and teeth store carbon and nitrogen isotopes over long periods, while the ratios in hair change more rapidly, allowing the scientists to determine the long-term diet and how it changed in the lions’ last months.

Humans made up at least half of the diet of one of the lions in the last months of his life, consuming at least 24 people, they concluded. The other lion had eaten 11 people, they found.

In other words, even a century later, you are what you eat.

Researchers led by anthropologist Nathaniel J. Dominy and Justin D. Yeakel of the University of California, Santa Cruz, report in Tuesday’s edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

They noted that estimates of the death toll reported at the time ranged from 28 reported by the Ugandan Railway Company, to 135, claimed by Lt. Col. John H. Patterson, a British officer who killed the lions in December, 1898.

The researchers did note that their study covers only the number of people eaten, while the number killed may have been higher. They said the death toll may have been as high as 75.

The killings occurred at a time when drought and disease sharply reduced the number of grazing animals that are the normal food for the lions, the report added, while at the same time construction of the railway brought an increased number of people into the area.

In addition, the researchers said the two lions seem to have cooperated in their hunting efforts. That’s not unusual when they are after large prey like buffalo and zebra, but isn’t necessary when after something smaller, like people.

However, one of the lions had severe dental problems and a jaw injury, probably limiting his ability to hunt, they reported. So the two may have worked together, with one eating more people and the other concentrating more heavily on other prey, but also eating humans.

“These findings underscore the complexity of what lions are capable of doing, and the complex interplay of costs and benefits that determine the size of their coalitions,” Dominy said in a statement.

The research was funded by the Earthwatch Institute, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation and the UC-Santa Cruz Committee on Research.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

Garfield freshman’s charity begins at school
By Kristi Heim, Seattle Times business reporter

Jessica Markowitz runs a charity that sends 22 poor girls in Rwanda to school. She has raised nearly $40,000, taken several trips to rural villages there, formed a partnership with a local girls school and worked this past summer teaching Rwandan kids to read in English.

The amazing part is that Markowitz is only 14.

In sixth grade she learned about Rwandan children who had lost their parents to genocide and war and could not afford school.

She felt compelled to help, so she organized some classmates at Seattle Girls School, and they pooled money to support girls in Rwanda, who can attend a year of school for as little as $40.

Three years later, they are still going strong. On Nov. 5, the Garfield High School freshman will receive the 2009 World of Children Founders Award at UNICEF in New York. The award honors people around the world who are creating innovative programs for children in need. With the $15,000 prize, Markowitz plans to help build a library in Rwanda focused on girls.

Her charity, called IMPUWE — the Rwandan word for compassion — is expanding to chapters in five more Seattle high schools. Markowitz says the name also stands for “inspire and motivate powerful, undiscovered women with education.”

She originally called the project Richard’s Rwanda, after Richard Kananga, a Rwandan aid worker who stayed with her family in Seattle during a U.S. visit and told her about the plight of girls whose parents had died.

With some help from her parents, she started her own youth group focused on charity. Youth Venture, a national organization that encourages young people to solve social problems through entrepreneurship, gave her $1,000 in seed money, and later she won a $10,000 social-change award from retailer Best Buy. Markowitz got about $8,000 at her bat mitzvah and donated it to the project.

Her group is planning to use the funds to continue helping the girls get through high school, expand to help even more girls, build a library and supply it with books.

Perspective on life

Markowitz had some exposure to the continent at a young age — her father is from South Africa and her mother’s nonprofit, Youth Ambassadors, does some work there.

But seeing her own life in perspective made the biggest impression, said her mother, Lori Markowitz.

“She said, ‘Wow, Mom, I can wake up every day and have breakfast and go to school, and you drive me in a car,’ ” Lori Markowitz said. “She’s just a normal girl who understands, because she’s living in this country, she has the ability to go out and make a difference.”

Jessica Markowitz says the effort has benefited her and her classmates as much as it has the girls overseas.

“It’s definitely going both ways,” she said. “It’s not just helping girls in Rwanda as a little charity movement, but it’s making a difference in the U.S. by teaching us how to give back.”

Markowitz looks every inch the typical American girl, grinning in her denim shorts, baseball hat and T-shirt in photos as she hugs Rwandan girls in blue cotton dresses. But when she talks, she reflects wisdom beyond her years.

“One of the biggest things we have to realize is how privileged we are,” she said. “Going and seeing the difference of how much we have compared to people in impoverished countries gives you the importance of valuing things. Many kids in the U.S. don’t have that realization. Once they do, they want to help out.”

Eye-opening visit

Rwanda, a small country in central Africa, is still emerging from the effects of a devastating conflict in 1994, when as many as 1 million people in 100 days were slaughtered in a genocide aimed at wiping out ethnic Tutsis. Most of the population lives on less than $2 a day, and thousands of orphans remain.

Hearing about the genocide hit home for Markowitz, even as a young girl. Her great-uncle survived Auschwitz and told her stories about losing his family during the Holocaust.

“Genocide is a terrible thing to me,” she said. “It was kind of hard to take that in. But over the years I have seen how Rwanda is trying to recover so that kind of thing never happens again.”

Visiting local families in the rural village was especially eye-opening. “The homes are mud huts, no electricity, no Internet,” she said. “A blanket or two on a hard floor with maybe a pot to cook with and a little hole in the floor for the bathroom. Americans could not imagine living that way.”

As she rode the public buses, “all these people would look at me like, wow, there is a little white girl in our country. People were just confused and surprised. Then they went along with it and liked to talk with me.”

In Kigali, the capital, Markowitz visited a boarding school for girls called FAWE (Forum for African Women Educationalist), and made a friend there. That friendship led to girls from FAWE starting their own chapter of Richard’s Rwanda and working with Markowitz on a mentoring program for impoverished girls in Nyamata, a rural part of Rwanda.

“All girls in the boarding school are mentors and big sisters to the ones we are helping in rural villages,” she said. “Many of these girls are getting an access to education, they’re thinking really big and going to good colleges, even though they’re coming from a developing country. They take the education very far in life.”

Keeping it going

Last year she met two Rwandan women who came to Seattle to intern at RealNetworks after graduating from a technical college in their home country. Both women are now on the board of the girls’ charity.

“What motivates me is the importance of education, the importance of women and the leadership they have in their communities,” she said. “When you combine education and women together, it’s a great mix.”

With the 15 original members of Richard’s Rwanda going off to different high schools, they decided to keep their project going by creating chapters at Garfield, Roosevelt, Lakeside, Seattle Prep, Ballard and The Center School. The girls are holding bake sales to raise money for a trip to Rwanda.

Even among young kids with endless distractions, “a really nice thing happens when we tell people what we’re doing,” she said. “They say, ‘I never knew we could do something like that.’ They jump in.”

The Rwandan girls have started planning how to build a library or learning center tailored to girls’ education, housing many books by female authors “to show there are women in all sorts of jobs,” Markowitz said. Given a choice, many parents would send sons to school over daughters, but that’s starting to change.

“I just think it’s really crazy at this age how much you can make a difference,” she said. “I guess what’s really changed me is just being thankful for everything and never forgetting or giving up, no matter hard it gets sometimes.”